The invention relates to an antenna to which is associated a feed horn, optimised for use in Interactive Satellite Terminals.
For the successful introduction of large interactive networks accessed by several tens of thousands of individual interactive user terminals each constituting of an indoor equipment and associated outdoor equipment (i.e. antenna and transmit/receive electronics), it is essential to have available on the market cost effective, high performance, transmit/receive satellite antennae. It is known that the antenna forms one of the crucial components of these terminals. At present it is always been taken for granted that high performance transmit antennae cannot be created at reasonable pricing.
The object of the present invention is to propose a high performance antenna system to meet existing regulatory and operational specifications but which can be produced at a reasonable price.
For realizing this objective, a satellite interactive terminal antenna according to the invention is characterised in that it comprises an elliptical antenna and a corrugated feed horn having an outer elliptical aperture and an inner cylindrical guide portion with a step therein, and in that cavity elements are added to the step portion for cross-polar component compensation. In addition, some essential mechanical features need to be implemented in order for the optimisation to be effective.